Reverend Albert Rivett

Albert Rivett (1855-1934), clergyman and pacifist, and Sir Albert Cherbury David Rivett (1885-1961), scientist and administrator, were father and son. Albert senior was born on 17 May 1855 at Norwich, England, son of William Rivett, bricklayer, of Huguenot ancestry, and his wife Amy, née Riches, of Danish descent. His father died when he was young and he spent his formative years with a Quaker. After completing a theology course at Harley College, East London, he was sent to Australia in 1879 by the Colonial Missionary Society. He was temporarily at the Independent Church, Brunswick, Melbourne, and married Elizabeth Mary Ann Cherbury on 20 October 1881 at Fitzroy. After several years at Port Esperance, Tasmania, they returned to Brunswick in 1887. Albert was subsequently posted to Yarrawonga and Beechworth and Albury, New South Wales. In 1915 he resigned from Whitefield Congregational Church, Sydney, because of growing differences with church officials over his attitude to World War I.

Albert was a warm-hearted humanist, champion of the underprivileged and critic of authority in all its forms, especially of those institutions which produced social division and conflict. He was one of the few to speak out strongly against the South African War and was a trenchant critic of conscription in 1916-17, sparring verbally with Billy Hughes. In 1891 at Beechworth he began publishing a monthly magazine known initially as the Murray Independent and then as the Federal Independent; both were sub-titled a Journal of Applied Christianity. Published with family assistance, the magazines reiterated his central moral concerns: the bestiality of war and the damage caused by the existence of national boundaries, the futility of maintaining separate religious denominations, support for the weak and oppressed, and sympathy for socialist views and the policies of Henry George. One of his interests was the eradication of venereal disease. He was a vigorous, effective and increasingly well-known public speaker who died dramatically on 18 November 1934 immediately after addressing an audience of about 5000 in the Sydney Domain, where he spoke regularly, in support of the entry to Australia of Egon Kisch. In the words of one of his supporters, 'Rev. Rivett had followed the Galilean to the end of the last mile'. His wife and seven children, all of whom absorbed a strong sense of social responsibility, survived him.

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/rivett-albert-8218/text14381

A TRIBUTE TO THE REV. A. RIVETT. The Rev. Albert Rivett is dead. I picked up my newspaper on Monday morning and read the account of his tragic and glorious end. Although 100 miles from the scene of the Domain;- in heading the speech I could see the eager crowd and hear the- clear- and decisive words of the speaker, whose voice is for ever stilled. For now over. 20 years I have, in season slid out of season, listened to that same yoice, always delivering its message of peace and goodwill to' the masses, . and even that last speech contained the same vibrant note, the same * striking plea, as had rung through the Domain- on hundreds of occasions. - - The continuation , of that meeting was the first monument to Mr. Rivett's great 3Qess — one small. yoice stilled- did not stop the onward march of his message. As Frank Cotton stated, lie could have ho more glorious ending than to die fighting in the Interests of the people. Was his death ft crucifixion,; and out 'of it will here come» grand and glorious resurrection -, What was Mr. Rivett's unique message ~~v- r. to ..the masses?' It could always be sum med up in ; a few words : v 'Disarm, Dis arm!' ,-He - was the greatest expounder of total disarmament Austria has yet had. He desired us to rid ourselves wholly of fear, and believe in our fellow workers, no matter what color or creed. A How can his disciples build a monument worthy of him and suited to his honor? No monument of stone or gilded words could express our feelings; it could be but cold and lifeless. No patch of ground covered in flowers could bring to his | friends the memory they desire to hold of him. In honor of the Rev. Albert Rivett, l and as a tribute to his memory, I now 1 appeal to the rank and file of the Labor Movement. Cast all shibboleths aside, cast aside all compromise, and in honor of his memory start .within the Movement a great anti-defence, anti-war anti-Fascist movement. Set Mr. Rivett's words vibrating through the length and breadth of Australia. May his thoughts, penned weekly in 'The Australian Worker,'- be printed and reprinted until every individual in 'Australia has read his burning message to the masses; let the Gospel taught therein sound and resound, echo and re-echo vibrate, and vibrate again, through the length and breadth of our continent, carrying it to the utmost ends of the earth,- and over our boundaries into new and greater worlds. When the day dawns, for which he. so strenuously fought; we will, with reverence to the dead, hail- that great co-operative . V. Commonwealth wherer man shall no longer exploit man and wars.

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Australian Worker (Sydney, NSW) - Nov 28 1934

Albert Rivett - Famous People Throughout History

• Description: (1855-1934) Clergyman And Pacifist
• Birth: May 17 1855
• Death: 1934